Tucking attachment for sewing-machines.



A. H. DE VOE.

TUCKING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MACHINES APPLICATION FILED JULY H.191].

Patented Feb. 11, 1919.-

3 SHEETSSHEET 1'.

0 Y INVENTOR ATTOR NEY rn: mun/s PETERS c0. PMO10-LrrHu.. WASHING u, n.

A. H. DE VOE.

TUCKVING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MACHINES.

APPL[CAT|0N FILED JULY 16. 1917.

1,298,725 v Patented Feb. 11, 1919.

3 SHEETSSHEET 2.

INVEN'TOR ATTORNEY A.H.DE VOL TUCKING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MACHINES.

APPLICATION TILED JULY 16.1'91

Patented. Feb. 11; 1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3' v INVE-TOR ATTORNEY STATES PATENT cur os.

ALBERT H. DE voE, 0E WESTFIELD, NEW JEEsEY, ASSIGN'OR TO THE SINGER 1VIA1\TUFAC- TUBING COMPANY, A coEroEArIoN on NEW JERSEY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 11, 1919.

Application fi1ed July 16, 1917. Serial No. 180,752.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT I-I. DE Von, a citizen of the United States, residing at Westfield, in the county of Union and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tucking Attachments for Sewing-Machines, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying draw- 1n s.

The invention relates to devices for forming and stitching a. plurality of tucks in material.

Great difliculty is experienced in inserting or removing work from a multiple tucking guide when there is a large number of folds and consequently it is highly deslrable to free the operators hands as much as possible. To accomplish this the invention contemplates the provision of means for readily operating the components of the tucking guide. When there are a large number of tucks and a correspondingly large number of needles, removal of the work is practically impossible unless the tension on the needle-threads is released when the presserfoot is raised. To enable the work to be removed freely without hindrance is another object of my invention.

Frequently it is desirable to interrupt a tucking operation without disturbing the already formed and stitched tucks in a piece of material. To this end a disconnectible member preferably in the form of a latch is provided for uncoupling the presser-foot and tension release device from a shiftable component of the tucking guide so as to allow the latter to be lifted alone and independently of the former.

Initial crimping of a large number of tucks is difficult and another object of my invention is to provide a construction facilitating the initial formation of the material into tucks.

Briefly the construction comprises a tucking guide having separable components, one of which is disconnectibly latched to a presser-bar which in turn is arranged to actuate a tension release device. A treadle operable lever is positively connected to the presser-bar and a hand lifting lever is arranged to elevate one component of thetucking guide and separate it from the lower component. A latch movable with and independently of the shiftable component of the tucking guide may be uncoupled from or coupled with the presser-bar so as to permit the upper component. of the tucking guide being lifted alone or simultaneously with the presser-bar and tension release device.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of the end of a' machine equipped with theattachment. Figs. 2 and 3 are side and rear elevations respectively of the same. Fig. 1 is a detail side elevation of a hand-lifting lever looking 0d the free end of the overhanging arm and Fig. 5 is a cross section of the tucking guide showing the intermeshing of the upper and lower compo- A presser-bar 7 pivotally carrying a presser-foot 8 is located in rear of thenee- I dle-bar. Secured upon the presser-bar by means of a clamp-screw 9 Fig. 2 is a block or collar 10 embraced within the lateral recess of a sleeve 11 fitted loosely upon the presser-bar. Laterally extending stud-pins- 14 and 15 are provided at the upper and lower ends of the sleeve 11, the latter preferably being' equipped with an anti-friction roller 16. The stud-pin 14 enters the apertured forward end of a treadle operable lifting lever 17 pivoted at 18 to the rearside of the bracket-arm. Throughthe lever 17 the presser-bar may be lifted against. the action of a flat spring 7 arranged to bear upon the upper end of the presser-bar in a manner well known. I

Suitably mounted upon a cloth-plate in advance of the needles in any convenient manner is. the lower forming member 19 of a tucking guide having convergent ribs by means of screws. 23 a plate 24 carrying.

a thumb-screw 25" entering a slot 26 in the lateral flange 27 of a laterally bent up wardly arched arm 28 extending from a position in front ofthe needles rearwardly linden the overhanging arm. At. the rear of? the needle-bar the arm 28 is bent warddy as shown. at 29 sothat when. viewed in plan asin Fig. 1, it embraces the head of the machine.

The arm 28, is. slidably supported in rear of the ne'edle bar' in a manner-now to be described, A bracket 30.- is secured at its uppere'nd by a screw 31, Fig.v 1, and at its lower by a, screw 31, Fig. 3,. in rear of the'head of the machine; This bracket is provided with: veL-"ticall y alined apertures 32 receiving-a pin 33 fi ne'd in the arm 28. bracket is also provided with a vertica'lly exte'liding stud-pin 34: o-fi'set' laterally fro nthe; line of the apertures and em.- braced by the slot 35 in the portion 29 of the 2,8. The arm 28. may be lifted or displaced. bodily vertically but it is steadied against turning on the pin 33-; by means of the pin 34: and} slot 35. l-he upper tuck forming member may thus be lifted in a perpendicular direction away from the lower forming member so as not to disturb thev condition of the material in the device when inspection is made thereof.

For convenient elevation of the arm 28 carrying the upper formingmember 22 a hand lifting lever 36 is fnlcrunacd/ona studpin 37 supported. in the head of the machine; pin38 preferably carrying antifriction roller 39- iseceentr-ically mounted on the lever 36; which. is. also. cam -faced; as at 40, and. peripherally recessed as at 41. Gooperating with. the roller- 38 is the reentrant curved. surface 42 of a vertically arrangedplate 43, and; cooperating with the can fface 450 and recess. 41 is an anti-friction roller 4ft.mounte d on the plate 43, which it will, be noted is'adjustably secured" by the slot and screw connection shown at 435110 the portion 29 of the arm. 28 adjacent the steadying slot 35 therein. VVhen-t-he hand lifting. lever is, thrown upwardly from; the positionv shown in. Fig, 2,' theupper formin member is. elevated. I 1

o l'ft the presser-foot simultaneously with .t he upper forming member ofthe tucking-guide alatch 46Lis. pivoted at 457. to the vertical. plate 43 withits toe-portion 47' at at suitable distanceaway from, the pivot in the anti-friction "leaseplatcg.

order to allow the latch to extend beneath roller .16 on the,sl1d1ng sleeve 11 This latch 46 may? be readily swungabout its pivot 47 from an operative p t o under the o r a in p tive position gainst the friction of" the spring-Washer 48' designed to hold the latch in the position. desired. With the latch in the p'osition'shown in Figs. 2 and 4 (in solid lines.) the presser-bar is compelled to move simultaneously with the upper tuck- "formingi membenbut with the latch in the dotted line position shown in Fig. 4 the tucleforming mcni-ber' may be raised'without disturbing thematerial u nderthe presserfoot. The head of'a screw. l9'tapped into the bracket and: locked by ajamnut limits the downward. movement of the arm 28' and affords means. for determining and varying the space between the: tuck-forming members 20"-22 when. material: is being operated upon.

As shown in the drawings, the machine is provided with a plurality oftension devices 50 of a number corresponding-to the: needles with which the tension devices are arranged substantially in parallelism. The tension depends frornthe bracket and; a sleeve- 54:

fitted loosely thereon carries a tension redevices are'also symmetricallyarranged on opposite sides of a vertical plane containleaseplate 55; which. is arrangedto impinge against the pins- 56, each entering the bore of the stem- 57 about which the separable disks- 58' and coiled springs 59 are arranged.

When the plate 55 islifted the tension-disks 58 are relieved from: the presser spring 59 in a manner fully explainedin my. Patent No. 1,146,4t05, July 13, 1915.. The tens-ion release plate 55 ispreferably lifted, when the presser-bar' is raised, by means of.- a bar or arm (SQ-seated. a; groove 61 in the sleeve 54a and securedby a screw 61- with its free end. in thepathof movement of the block or collar 10, Gravity is relied upon to-hold the tension release plate- 55 out of contact with the pins-56 and a collar 62 fast on the lower end-of the, dependingpin 53 determines the lowest position of the tension re- Between the multiple tension devices: and

the needles, which arearrangedsubstantiallyin parallelism, a take-up 63 islocated being arrangedpreferably symmetrically with respect to a. vertical plane throughthe .needle bar and. the line of fee d.--

The take-up comprises a pair-of parallel arms 64- mounted in fixed spaced relation on the upper end.- of the needle-bar, the

'apertured cr0ss-arnr68 of the L-shaped lever is moved differentially between the arms 6465 fixedly carried by the needle-bar durinvention, what I claim here1n-1s:

ing the operation of the machine. The needle threads pass from the tensions through eyes in the fixed guide-plate 7 2 over arm 64 thence through the eyes of the differentially movable cross-arm 68 and over arm to the eyes in the needle-clamp and thus to the needles. By means of the takeup construction the thread leading to the needles is controlled as will be readily understood without further explanation.

From the foregoing description it will be clear that by the provision of a latch or disconnectible connection between the presserbar and the upper tuck-forming member the operator will be enabled to manipulate the work with greater convenience than heretofore and without disturbing the condition of the work partly completedwhen examination is desired of the material in the tucking device.

It will also be noted that the arrangement of the tensions and take up is such that the length of thread between the work and the tension is reducedto a minimum thereby enabling the thread to be controlled with greater reliability than heretofore in this class of machines. By the disposition of the needles, take-up and tension device symmetrically on opposite sides of a vertical plane defined by the needle-bar and'the line of feed and also by reason of the relatively parallel arrangement of the before mentioned parts, the action of the thread controlling device is substantially the same on each of the threads running to the needles consequently insuring uniformity in the character of the seamed tucks.

The hand lifting lever 36 has a three-fold utility. It serves to elevate the upper tuck- 'formlng member to allow of convenient manipulation of the work and also, if desired, of the resser-foot and tension release plate as has been previously mentioned. It serves to look the upper forming member down in normal working relation with the lower. forming member so as to guard against accidental disturbance of the tucks under formation through the cooperative action of recess 41 and anti-friction roller 44. It serves as a means for springing or reciprocating the upper forming member preliminary to a stitching oporation so as to enable the operator to initially form the crimps or tucks in the material with greater ease than heretofore by reason of the action of the cam-face 40 and fixed friction roller 44, which being positioned a little forward of the main support of the arm 28 exert power in the manner of a lever of the third class to slightly shift or spring the upper tuck-forming member (positioned a relatively long distance-from the main support)"to and from the lower tuck forming member. Y

Having thus set forth the nature of the 1. In a sewing machine, in combination, stitch-forming mechanism including a needle-bar carrying a plurality of needles, upper and lower complemental tuck-forming members located in advance of the needles, an arm carrying said upper member, a support for said arm in rear of said needlebar, a sliding connection between saidsupport and said arm, and means for bodily lifting said arm and the upper member carried thereby to facilitate manipulation of the work. i

2. In a sewing machine, in combination, stitch-forming mechanism, a presser-foot, a tucking device having complemental forming members, means for supporting said members so as to permit separation thereof for convenient manipulation of work, a lever for shifting one of said forming members relative to the other, and a latch cobperatively arranged between said lever' and presser-foot whereby on shifting one of said forming members relative to the other the resser-foot may be lifted.

3. In a sewing machine, in combination, stitch-forming mechanism, a presser-bar, a presser-foot carried thereby, a tucking device having upper and lower complemental forming members, means for supporting said members so as to permit separation thereof for convenient manipulation of work, a lever for lifting said upper member relative to said lower member, a latch movable bodily with said upper member and also independently thereof, and means operatively connected to the presser-bar, and cooperating with said latch whereby on lifting said upper member the presser-foot may also be lifted.

4. In a sewing machine, in combination, an overhanging arm and a head carried thereby, stitch-forming mechanism, a presserfoot, a presser-foot lifting lever carried by the needles to a position in rear of the needles, a bracket fixedly secured in rear of the needles, a sliding connection between said bracket and said arm, a vertically extending pin carried by said bracket, a tension release plate slidingly supported on said vertically extending pin and a multiple tension device fixedly carried by said bracket in cooperative relation with said tension release plate, and common means for lifting 10 said upper forming member, said presserfoot and said tension release plate.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

ALBERT H. DE VOE.

copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressink the Commissioner of Patentl, Washington, D. 0." 

